Close Your is a first person tragedy game that uses facial detection to interact with narrative in a unique way
In Close Your life flashes before you in the blink of an eye. You live the life of a person from birth to death and make decisions that impact that persons life. However, each moment of your life only lasts for as long as you can keep your eyes open. We use a webcam to track when players blink, and advance the player's life every time they blink.
Close Your has been a large undertaking, and I have worked very closely with Will Hellwarth to create a unique and emotional experience. I have been particularly interested in how to convey the story of a life in such a small time frame. There have been many unique challenges stemming from the core challenge of balancing narrative comprehension within a 2 to 10 second time frame as players can blink at any moment. I have learned a great deal about visual storytelling, and user experience challenges through this project. We also aimed to keep the players interaction with the world as simple as possible so a wide range of players can experience the game.
Close Your has won several awards including: